Simon Harris

The chairperson of the Termination for Medical Reasons group has welcomed a decision by the Minister for Health to allow doctors to refer women who have pregnancies, where there is a diagnosis of a life-limiting condition, for an abortion abroad before the end of this year.

In a statement to RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Simon Harris said he wants to allow certain parts of the legislation to come into effect in advance of services beginning in January.

No abortion legislation until court challenges concluded
Three court cases have delayed introduction of law to regulate pregnancy termination

Sun, Aug 12, 2018
Sarah Bardon Political Reporter

The Government will not introduce any legislation to implement the outcome of the referendum on the Eighth Amendment until court challenges to the result have concluded.

Reports emerged this weekend that Minister for Health Simon Harris was considering introducing an interim law to assist women who have received a diagnosis of a fatal foetal abnormality and to decriminalise women who procure an abortion.

Simon Harris has warned the main parties in Northern Ireland that access to abortion won’t stop at the border.

The health minister told the Féile an Phobail event in Belfast last night that he was planning to “ensure” that women in Northern Ireland, where abortion is still banned in almost all circumstances, will be able to access terminations through the Irish health service.

Northern Irish Women's Abortion Access Will Change In A Huge Way Thanks To The Republic Of Ireland

By Sarah Friedmann
Aug 7, 2018

Back in May of this year, Ireland voted to repeal its highly restrictive abortion ban, allowing many more women the ability to exercise their reproductive rights. However, while abortion did become legal in the Republic of Ireland following the referendum, the procedure remains illegal in Northern Ireland, which is a separate country. Nonetheless, Northern Irish Women's abortion access is still going to improve following the Republic's referendum, as the country has promised to allow women from the North to similarly obtain the procedure.

Catholic hospitals set to ban abortion
Terminations will be refused under bishops’ ethics code

Ellen Coyne, Senior Ireland Reporter
July 25 2018

Catholic hospitals could break the law and refuse to offer abortions in all circumstances, a “code of ethics” drafted by the Irish Catholic Bishops suggests. Guidelines for up to 20 main hospitals connected with religious orders include a ban on most assisted reproduction procedures. The few allowed are not to be given to unmarried women or LGBT couples.

The Code of Ethical Standards for Healthcare, which sets out what can be expected from Catholic healthcare services, bans contraception; gender reassignment surgery for transgender people, crisis pregnancy counselling with information on abortion and counselling for families going through a fatal foetal abnormality diagnosis that lists termination as an option.

The Government has published the proposed legislation to regulate abortion services to be introduced following the recent referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment.

The heads of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill was published on Tuesday evening, unveiling a number of minor amendments to the proposed general scheme that was published before the vote on May 25th.